9/10/2022
RacinBoys
Jake Swanson Holds off Alex Bright to Win Xtreme Sprints Debut at Jacksonville
By Jordan DeLucia, Xtreme Outlaws Sprint Series (Jacksonville, IL) -- Jake Swanson could smell the blood in the water. Directly in front of him, leader Alex Bright was getting tighter and tighter every lap. With two left on the board, he knew it was time to make the move.
PHOTO CREDIT: Jacy Norgaard
With a deep dive into Turn 3, he slid up in front of Bright and took away his line and the lead before crossing under the white flag, nearly neck-and-neck at the line. Bright tried a slider of his own through Turns 1-2, but Swanson kept his foot in it as he hit the high-banked Jacksonville Speedway cushion and fended-off Bright’s last-ditch effort.
In the end, it was all Swanson needed to gap Bright and drive across the finish line to score his second Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Car Series presented by Low-E Insulation Feature win of the inaugural season.
“It was a close one, but I gambled a little bit and tried to make sure I beat him around the outside,” Swanson said. “I actually buried it in the curb a little bit harder than I wanted to, and I squeezed the throttle pedal harder and tried to make sure that it didn’t bike-up or get tight. I knew if I snagged the nose, I was done for.”
It’s been long and winding road for the 35-year-old from Anaheim, CA, who now becomes only the second driver in Xtreme Outlaw history to win more than once. He’s come a long way since his days in the Midget ranks and early Sprint Car starts, and reflected on his time in the seat with Team AZ Racing, traveling around to compete against drivers from across the country.
“It really is an honor to drive all over the country and race,” Swanson said. “To be on a circuit like this and be able to win at this level is pretty awesome.”
Swanson took the green flag from outside Row 2, directly behind Bright. Bright took the lead on the first lap and proceeded to lead the next 27 circuits of the 1/4-mile oval. Though he looked fast out front in the early going, Bright soon found himself in a struggle, losing the handling with half of the race left.
“I knew I was in trouble before two-to-go; I started to struggle with about 15-to-go,” Bright said. “I was just trying to hold on, not make mistakes, still running hard. But I didn’t wanna give it up on doing something stupid, either.”
Even though the car was getting tight, Bright still looked strong on the restarts, which contributed to his ability to keep the lead. And his competition noticed.
“I knew [Bright] was getting tighter and tighter,” Swanson said. “He was getting really good restarts. He was going so early that I would have a hard time getting ahold of something. It was hard for me to smash the pedal and get going. It felt like I was spinning the tires, and I would lose more time.
“If I could make sure that I carried speed into Turns 1-2, [Bright] would get tight and I’d be able to make that ground back up as long as I got a good restart.”
After fending-off relentless pressure from Robert Ballou behind him, Swanson was left with five laps on the board for the race’s final restart; one car in front of him. That’s when he devised the plan.
“I knew I was running out of time, but there were a couple spots where I could see down there on the bottom,” Swanson said. “If I could just get some momentum and get close enough to [Bright], I could stick something down there and at least break his momentum.
“If it slid him, I’d break his momentum and if it hooked the bottom, I could drag race him to the next corner and hopefully slide him there. That’s what we ended up doing.”
Bright had a plan for the last restart as well – a conservative one – and said that looking back, he realized he should’ve pushed harder.
“I think with about five-to-go, I needed to just throw the ‘don’t-make-mistakes’ card out the door and just start running it as hard as I could,” Bright said. “For how we had the car, I think that was my only option. I didn’t see it until Swanson got by us, but at that point, it was too little, too late.”
Though he didn’t get the win, Bright still finished P2 and made up a big chunk of points in the championship standings on leader Shane Cockrum. With Cockrum having to come from 18th to finish sixth, Bright was able to cut the gap down from 47 points to 16 with five races remaining. Doing well miles away from his home in Collegeville, PA, gives he and the Hummer Motorsports crew a big dose of confidence.
“Running back in Pennsylvania, we don’t really get cushions, we don’t run on the small tracks like that,” Bright said. “So, to come out here and run as good as we did for 28 of the 30 laps, I guess it wasn’t so bad.”
Rounding out the podium was the only other two-time Xtreme Series winner, CJ Leary. The Greenfield, IN-driver came from seventh in his first Series appearance since Lake Ozark Speedway in June.
Though the night started out unfavorable, Cockrum was able to come back from 18th to finish sixth and retain his points lead, though smaller now. He earned the TJ Forged Hard Charger Award in his drive, picking up 12 spots of position in 30 laps.
UP NEXT
The Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Car Series presented by Low-E Insulation heads to Lewistown, IL, for another track debut on Saturday, Sept. 10, at Spoon River Speedway. Buy a ticket at the gate or stream all the action live on DIRTVision.
RESULTS
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 21AZ-Jake Swanson[4]; 2. 20-Alex Bright[2]; 3. 77M-CJ Leary[7]; 4. 2B-Anton Hernandez[6]; 5. 15K-Kevin Thomas Jr[9]; 6. 66-Shane Cockrum[18]; 7. 33M-Matt Westfall[8]; 8. 12-Robert Ballou[3]; 9. 56-Mitchell Davis[17]; 10. 6-Mario Clouser[5]; 11. 28-Kory Schudy[14]; 12. N2-Nic Harris[11]; 13. 8D-Will Armitage[12]; 14. 1JR-Steven Russell[15]; 15. 16-Anthony Nicholson[19]; 16. 44-Wesley Smith[13]; 17. 2A-Austin Archdale[21]; 18. 17GP-Max Adams[10]; 19. 24-Landon Simon[20]; 20. 52-Isaac Chapple[16]; 21. 28M-Brandon Mattox[1]; 22. 52F-Logan Faucon[22]
Last Chance Showdown 1 (10 Laps): 1. 56-Mitchell Davis[3]; 2. 66-Shane Cockrum[4]; 3. 16-Anthony Nicholson[2]; 4. 24-Landon Simon[9]; 5. 2A-Austin Archdale[1]; 6. 52F-Logan Faucon[5]; 7. 70X-Eric Shelton[6]; 8. 44B-Cory Bruns[7]; 9. 8-Tyler Roth[8]; 10. 70-Korey Weyant[10]; 11. 29-Mitch Wissmiller[11]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Alex Bright[1]; 2. 33M-Matt Westfall[2]; 3. 21AZ-Jake Swanson[4]; 4. 17GP-Max Adams[3]; 5. 28-Kory Schudy[5]; 6. 52-Isaac Chapple[6]; 7. 66-Shane Cockrum[8]; 8. 8-Tyler Roth[9]; 9. 24-Landon Simon[7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 12-Robert Ballou[1]; 2. 77M-CJ Leary[2]; 3. 6-Mario Clouser[4]; 4. 15K-Kevin Thomas Jr[3]; 5. 44-Wesley Smith[5]; 6. 2A-Austin Archdale[6]; 7. 70X-Eric Shelton[7]; 8. 44B-Cory Bruns[8]; 9. 70-Korey Weyant[9]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 2B-Anton Hernandez[4]; 2. 28M-Brandon Mattox[5]; 3. 8D-Will Armitage[1]; 4. N2-Nic Harris[3]; 5. 1JR-Steven Russell[6]; 6. 16-Anthony Nicholson[7]; 7. 52F-Logan Faucon[8]; 8. 56-Mitchell Davis[2]; 9. 29-Mitch Wissmiller[9]
Qualifying Group 1: 1. 21AZ-Jake Swanson, 00:11.762[9]; 2. 17GP-Max Adams, 00:11.870[5]; 3. 33M-Matt Westfall, 00:11.883[1]; 4. 20-Alex Bright, 00:11.921[4]; 5. 28-Kory Schudy, 00:12.078[2]; 6. 52-Isaac Chapple, 00:12.200[8]; 7. 24-Landon Simon, 00:12.319[3]; 8. 66-Shane Cockrum, 00:12.366[6]; 9. 8-Tyler Roth, 00:13.028[7]
Qualifying Group 2: 1. 6-Mario Clouser, 00:11.605[2]; 2. 15K-Kevin Thomas Jr, 00:11.631[9]; 3. 77M-CJ Leary, 00:11.681[4]; 4. 12-Robert Ballou, 00:11.801[5]; 5. 44-Wesley Smith, 00:11.961[7]; 6. 2A-Austin Archdale, 00:12.331[3]; 7. 70X-Eric Shelton, 00:12.734[6]; 8. 44B-Cory Bruns, 00:12.817[8]
Qualifying Group 3: 1. 2B-Anton Hernandez, 00:11.810[2]; 2. N2-Nic Harris, 00:11.910[1]; 3. 56-Mitchell Davis, 00:12.100[6]; 4. 8D-Will Armitage, 00:12.212[5]; 5. 28M-Brandon Mattox, 00:12.231[9]; 6. 1JR-Steven Russell, 00:12.358[3]; 7. 16-Anthony Nicholson, 00:12.365[8]; 8. 52F-Logan Faucon, 00:12.450[7]
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CRAIG RONK EARNS FEATURE VICTORY IN POWRi OUTLAW MICROS AT JACKSONVILLE SPEEDWAY
By POWRi PR (Jacksonville, IL) -- Craig Ronk would use high-side momentum at Jacksonville Speedway in the POWRi 600cc Outlaw Micro League presented by Engler Machine & Tool feature event on Friday Night to claim his fifth career feature win within league competition.
Entering a stout field of competitors in the POWRi 600cc Outlaw Micro League presented by Engler Machine and Tool at Macon Speedway would find Aaron Andruskevitch and Jayden Lucassen each claim early heat racing wins with Chad Elliott gaining the night’s high-point qualifier award and pole-grid for the feature race.
Flying onto the track, outside front-row Craig Ronk would emerge victorious to claim his second win of the year after an action-packed micro feature with Aaron Andruskevitch resulting in an outstanding runner-up finishing effort after battling for nearly the entire twenty-lap feature event.
In contention among the front-runners all evening, Chad Elliott would notch a solid third with Eric Braundmeier placing fourth as John Barnard showed speed all night to round out the top-five finishers at Jacksonville Speedway with the POWRi 600cc Outlaw Micro League presented by Engler Machine and Tool feature.
Jacksonville Speedway | POWRi 600cc Outlaw Micro League | 9/9/22:
Advanced Racing Suspensions Heat Race 1 Winner: 21-Aaron Andruskevitch
Driven Midwest Heat Race 2 Winner: 09-Jayden Lucassen
MVT Services High Point Qualifier: 65E-Chad Elliott
Toyota Racing Development Hard Charger: 1E-Eric Braundmeier
Engler Machine & Tool Feature Winner: 94-Craig Ronk
Lucas Oil A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 94-Craig Ronk[2]; 2. 21-Aaron Andruskevitch[4]; 3. 65E-Chad Elliott[1]; 4. 1E-Eric Braundmeier[14]; 5. B8-John Barnard[3]; 6. 27-Kyle Barker[6]; 7. 55S-Daryn Stark[8]; 8. 09-Jayden Lucassen[5]; 9. 30R-Lance Rockwell[13]; 10. 9C-Coleman Gilpin[9]; 11. 14D-Chris DiBart[10]; 12. 41K-Karter Lane[12]; 13. 8W-Breanna Wirth[7]; 14. 55H-Hayden Harvey[11]; 15. 10-Jacob Tipton[15].
Advanced Racing Suspension Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Aaron Andruskevitch[1]; 2. 27-Kyle Barker[2]; 3. 94-Craig Ronk[6]; 4. 55S-Daryn Stark[4]; 5. 8W-Breanna Wirth[8]; 6. 55H-Hayden Harvey[7]; 7. 30R-Lance Rockwell[5]; 8. 1E-Eric Braundmeier[3].
Driven Midwest Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 09-Jayden Lucassen[1]; 2. 65E-Chad Elliott[4]; 3. B8-John Barnard[6]; 4. 9C-Coleman Gilpin[3]; 5. 14D-Chris DiBart[5]; 6. 41K-Karter Lane[7]; 7. (DNS) 10-Jacob Tipton.
Next up for the POWRi 600cc Outlaw Micro League presented by Engler Machine and Tool will be Saturday, August 20th at Macon Speedway for the final stand-alone seasonal event in the Land of Lincoln.
Can’t make it out to the track and don’t want to miss any of the action in the racing program? Subscribe today to MAVTV on www.FloRacing.com to catch all the action LIVE and ON-DEMAND.
Follow along for more information such as race recaps, updates, full results, and press releases online at http://www.powri.com, on Twitter & Instagram at @POWRi_Racing, or on Facebook at POWRi.
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305 SPRINTS
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 78-Dugan Thye[2]; 2. 14T-Evan Turner[4]; 3. 00-Patrick Ryan[1]; 4. 7B-Bret Bunton[6]; 5. 82-John Parker[3]; 6. 22K-Kelli Harter[7]; 7. 99-Jarrett Weyant[5]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 00-Patrick Ryan[1]; 2. 78-Dugan Thye[3]; 3. 82-John Parker[5]; 4. 14T-Evan Turner[4]; 5. 99-Jarrett Weyant[2]; 6. 7B-Bret Bunton[6]; 7. 22K-Kelli Harter[7]
STREET STOCKS
A Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. R1-Jim Ransom[2]; 2. 55-Zane Reitz[1]; 3. 44G-Brian Gaines[5]; 4. 8-Sage Martin[8]; 5. 46-Chad Myers[6]; 6. 63-Cody Kitselman[9]; 7. 44J-Jeremy Madsen[7]; 8. D7-Carter Dart[12]; 9. 30D-Dustin Smith[10]; 10. 67R-Rudy Zaragoza[3]; 11. 21D-Jaret Duff[4]; 12. 282-Jacob Bowen[11]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 55-Zane Reitz[3]; 2. 44G-Brian Gaines[1]; 3. 46-Chad Myers[4]; 4. 44J-Jeremy Madsen[5]; 5. 30D-Dustin Smith[2]; 6. 282-Jacob Bowen[6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. R1-Jim Ransom[2]; 2. 21D-Jaret Duff[3]; 3. 67R-Rudy Zaragoza[6]; 4. 8-Sage Martin[1]; 5. 63-Cody Kitselman[5]; 6. D7-Carter Dart[4]
Submitted By: Kirk Elliott
